New Mexico: Billionaire businessman and founder of the Virgin Group, Richard Branson is set to take off for the edge of space in the first fully-crewed spaceflight of Virgin Galactic on Sunday evening, July 11.
Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity SpaceShipTwo vehicle will lift off from Spaceport America, New Mexico, US.
The space plane is released from the mothership about 44,000 feet (13,400 meters) up, then fires its rocket motor to streak straight to space. Maximum altitude is roughly 55 miles (70 kilometers), with three to four minutes of weightlessness provided. The rocket plane which requires two pilots glides to a runway landing at its Spaceport America base.
Richard Branson's fellow passengers will include Beth Moses (Virgin Galactic's chief astronaut instructor), Colin Bennett (Virgin Galactic lead operations engineer), Sirisha Bandla (the Indian-origin vice president of government affairs and research operations at the company).
When to watch LIVE streaming of launch?
As per Virgin Galactic’s Twitter, the launch will be broadcast live at 7:30am PT; 8:30 am MT; 10:30am ET; 3:30pm BST.
Where to watch LIVE streaming of launch?
Virgin Galactic will share a global live stream of spaceflight. The live stream will be available to watch on Virgin Galactic.com. The interest audience can also watch the launch on Virgin Galactic Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook channels.
The Unity 22 mission will be the twenty-second flight test for VSS Unity and the company's fourth crewed spaceflight. It will also be the first to carry a full crew of two pilots and four mission specialists in the cabin. Unity 22 will focus on cabin and customer experience objectives.